iMac G5 - Speaker out static noise.

macrumors member

I've just become the proud owner of a new 20" G5 iMac and treated myself to a set of Soundsticks 2 to complement it. I seem to have a slight problem, when the speakers are plugged into the iMac (they are plugged in fully to the optical/speaker out socket), even the very slightest movement of the plug (that goes into the iMac) produces a large amount of static sound which comes out the speakers. Apart from this, any sounds comes out perfectly.

So any time I plug a USB cable in or do anything which means the output cable moves in the slightest and I get this horrible crackling sound. Do you think there is a problem with the output socket in the iMac? Does anyone else get the same problem?

macrumors 68000

I have never owned an optical out set of speakers, but even with normal jack, you can get some sounds when moveing the cables, especially if you have them turned up all the way.

If you touch the normal head phone jack type speakers connector to your finger with the volume all the way up, the speakers will crackle and make a humming sound. As for being optical, as light being used I believe in the data transfer, maybe its just sensitive to having the light refracted inside the cable when its moved, thus the static. I really wouldn't know. I just see that you aren't catching anyones attention with this so I though I might take a guess at it.

thread startermacrumors member

Thanks varmit, since I posted earlier I checked out Apples developer/technical documentaion on the new iMac and it mentions that the port is both optical and analogue, and it automatically switches mode depending on what you've got plugged in. Somewhere in there it says that you get no static or interference at all when using optical so I was thinking about getting an optical cable to plug into the iMac and then getting a converter for it back into to a 3.5" stereo plug for the speakers.

Probably sounds a bit overkill but I'm a perfectionist and it's bugging me in an otherwise amazing computer

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